Sinica Podcast

Ken Liu on Chinese science fiction

9 snips
Jan 12, 2017
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
INSIGHT

Three-Body's Expanding Cosmic Scope

  • The Three-Body trilogy expanded from a Cold War alien-contact premise into a cosmic meditation on humanity's place in the universe.
  • Ken Liu says the scope grows from intimate history to universe-scale imagination across three books.
ANECDOTE

Translation Career Started By Fixing A Friend's Story

  • Ken started translating by editing a friend's translation and then redoing it from scratch because it captured voice poorly.
  • That first fresh translation led to publication in Clarkesworld and kickstarted his translation career.
ADVICE

Update Scientific Details When Translating Hard SF

  • Translators should check scientific claims in older SF texts and consult authors about updates.
  • Ken recommends researching recent papers and discussing possible changes with the original author.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app